Move VirtualBox from C to D drive

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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Stokholm
Posts: 2
Joined: 7. Oct 2014, 15:39

Move VirtualBox from C to D drive

Post by Stokholm »

I have installed VirtualBox with a virtual harddrive (QIIME) on the C-drive some time ago.
Now I would like to move the whole content to another drive (D), due to size limitations on the C drive.
I find no problems in copy-pasting the whole thing, but I don't know how to relocate the program to start up from the new drive?
And how do I change location of the "Shared_Folder"?
Looking forward to getting the solutions :-)
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39134
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Move VirtualBox from C to D drive

Post by mpack »

The only things that take up any space worth caring about are the VMs, so if I was you I would not make life complicated for myself.

Another thing: there is no default startup folder in VirtualBox. There is a default creation folder. I.e. Preferences | Default Machine Folder is the folder where new VMs will be created, but is not necessarily where existing VMs are.

So, to answer your question: just copy the VMs to the secondary drive, and then the easiest fix is to manually edit <userdoc>\VirtualBox.xml so that the path to each VM has the correct drive letter. Back up the xml before you make any changes. You can later use the GUI to change the above preference to ensure that future VMs will also be placed in the new location.
Stokholm
Posts: 2
Joined: 7. Oct 2014, 15:39

Re: Move VirtualBox from C to D drive

Post by Stokholm »

Hi mpack,

Thanks for your suggestions, I'll try to figure it out....
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